Perhaps HAMP (Home Affordable Mortgage Plan) should be renamed HUMP. A new report issued Friday by the Treasury Department said that approximately 630,000 people who had tried to get their monthly mortgage payments lowered through the effort have been cut loose through July. That’s about 48 percent of the 1.3 million homeowners who had enrolled since March 2009 . That is up from more than 40 percent through June. The report suggests foreclosures could rise in the second half of the year and weaken the ailing housing market, analysts say. … The banking industry said borrowers weren’t sending back their paperwork. They also have accused the Obama administration of initially pressuring them to sign up borrowers without insisting first on proof of their income. When banks later moved to collect the information, many troubled homeowners were disqualified or dropped out. The administration’s defense of the program would be laughable if it wasn’t such a shame. [The "senior official, who spoke frankly on the condition of anonymity"] defended the administration’s lackluster foreclosure-prevention initiatives,arguing that a million struggling homeowners benefited from a temporary period of lower monthly payments even though they may ultimately lose their homes ; Acknowledged that one success for the administration has been its role in lengthening the foreclosure process , despite the risks it poses to the stability of the housing market;
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Nearly 1/2 of Participants in Obama Mortgage Program Drop Out
